MARVEL’S AGENTS OF SHIELD, ABC Tuesday nights at 8 PM, deals with the team of non-superpowered folks who assist, investigate and otherwise deal with things pertaining to superheroes in the universe of THE AVENGERS. The series, created by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, brings back Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), somehow resurrected – we don’t know quite how yet, but it’s clear Coulson himself has been misled – after his death in AVENGERS as the team leader. Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) is the most experienced agent after Coulson, Ward (Brett Dalton) is muscle, Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) and […]Read On »

SUPERHEROES: A NEVER-ENDING BATTLE is a three-hour documentary on comic books and the culture they’ve created that airs Tuesday October 15 on PBS. Documentarian Michael Kantor says, “We made this series so that no parent would ever throw out their kids’ comic books again. This series is not just for comic book geeks – it’s funded both by the National Endowment of the Arts and the National Endowment of Humanities, and it contextualizes the stories of comic book superheroes within the greater history, that of the Great Depression, World War II, the congressional witch hunts of the 1950s, the Watergate […]Read On »

Cast: Clark Gregg, Colbie Smulders, Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge, Ron Glass, J. August Richards Writer: Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen Director: Joss Whedon Network: Airs on ABC, Tuesdays @ 8 p.m. Original Telecast: Sept. 24, 2013 So THE AVENGERS happened. Obviously, that’s the understatement of the century considering it stands as one of the highest grossing movies of all time and launched a whole new generations to the characters that so many of us have already known and loved for many years. Now comes MARVEL’S AGENTS OF SHIELD, a television sequel to […]Read On »

If last year’s THE AVENGERS was any indication, Marvel Studios knows how to manage its stable of comic book characters in film and how to maximize storylines, characters and talent over the course of multiple movies. Anchoring THE AVENGERS was Robert Downey Jr. as billionaire Tony Stark, aka Iron Man and now he’s back flying solo again with IRON MAN 3. Although this could be viewed as a direct sequel to THE AVENGERS (Stark has post-traumatic stress from saving the world from invading aliens), the latest film directed by Shane Black (taking over from Jon Favreau) grounds the film in […]Read On »

Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Jon Favreau, Ben Kingsley Writer: Shane Black, Drew Pearce Director: Shane Black Distributor: Marvel/Disney Release Date: May 3, 2013 When you think about it, Marvel has done something, no other company has been able to successfully do. They’ve taken all of their comic book properties not licensed to other studios, and created a successful feature film franchise encompassing several different characters and movies that all tie into a core mythology. Throughout THE INCREDIBLE HULK, IRON MAN, CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER and THOR, audiences have glimpsed completely different […]Read On »

In NBC’s freshman series REVOLUTION, Monday nights at 10 PM, all electricity is gone from the world. Created by Eric Kripke, who executive-produces with J.J. Abrams, with a pilot directed by fellow executive producer Jon Favreau, REVOLUTION takes place fifteen years after “the lights went out.” Much of the former United States is ruled by militias. However, a small band of people are trying to find out what really happened and restore power – both electronic and personal – to the populace. Two of the main characters are the uncle and niece team of Miles Matheson, played by Billy Burke, […]Read On »

Cast: Billy Burke, Tracy Spirdakos, Giancarlo Esposito, Zak Orth, David Lyons, Tim Guinee, Elizabeth Mitchell, Graham Rogers Writer: Paul Grellong Director: Jon Cassar Network: NBC, airs Mondays @ 10 p.m. Original Telecast: Oct. 15, 2012 Through four episodes of REVOLUTION, I have been constantly singing the praises of Giancarlo Esposito’s character of Captain Tom Neville, one of the henchmen to General Monroe (David Lyons) out in the field doing his dirty work. Neville has been one of the most interesting characters on the show and his subplot involving a battle of wills with Danny (Graham Rogers) has been one of […]Read On »

Cast: Billy Burke, Tracy Spirdakos, Giancarlo Esposito, Zak Orth, David Lyons, Tim Guinee, Elizabeth Mitchell Writer: Anne Cofell Saunders Director: Félix Enríquez Alcalá Network: NBC, airs Mondays @ 10 p.m. Original Telecast: Oct. 8, 2012 The fourth episode of REVOLUTION, “The Plague Dogs,” gave us a breather in terms of the whole Monroe Militia vs. the resistance storyline that beleaguered the show for the past few episodes. The show actually took a direction I had hoped it would take in focusing on maybe some of the people impacted by the changed world – for better or worse – and have […]Read On »

Cast: Billy Burke, Tracy Spirdakos, Giancarlo Esposito, Zak Orth, David Lyons, Tim Guinee Writer: Monica Owusu-Breen Director: Sanford Bookstaver Network: NBC, airs Mondays @ 10 p.m. Original Telecast: Oct. 1, 2012 The third episode of REVOLUTION, “No Quarter,” had more poopy sad faces from Charlie (Tracy Spirdakos) than you could shake a stick at. Every scene was a close up of her sad, crying face acting like someone had just kicked her puppy. It was annoying. I understand she is “new to all this” in that she hasn’t been outside her small village until just a few days ago. But […]Read On »

Your time is short. We know this. So in order to expedite your buying and Netflix decision making, we provide you with a list of the cool and not-so-cool titles coming out for movies, television and everything in-between. So put your feet up, grab some popcorn and check out this week’s selections. Movies THE AVENGERS – Now, this is how you do a superhero team movie right. While there have been attempts in the past to blend characters together in order to make a blockbuster movie. They could not have done much better than Joss Whedon did with THE AVENGERS […]Read On »